…police standards
At the beginning of this year, in a move to repair the damage to our much-maligned (and rightfully so!) Police Force, it was stipulated that new recruits must have at least CXE or higher passes!! Up to now, from God-knows-when, GPF recruits have had to have a “sound” primary school education!! Well, this explains a lot! Your Eyewitness doesn’t think you gotta have five CSEC passes with Maths and English to be accepted. Even UG can’t get that, and has resorted to all sorts of made-up entrance free passes. But just “sound primary school” for the Police?
First of all, what’s a “sound” primary school education? Is it a cut-off mark from the NGSA? But if a student had got a decent mark, one would’ve expected him/her to enter secondary school! Guyanese always knew that policemen weren’t the brightest bulbs in the room – any room!! But we can now understand why the old joke about policemen has survived for so long. You know the old joke: the policeman nabs the miscreant in the act on Vlissengen Road, but hauls him over to Church Street to charge him, since there’s no way in Hell (or Earth!) he could spell “Vlissengen”!!
But seriously, folks, this is an announcement we can’t allow to now just blow away in the wind. For the longest while, there have been complaints about the low salaries in the GPF being a disincentive to recruiting new cops. Well, let’s now raise the salaries to make them comparable to those in the private sector – but require at least 3 subjects at CSEC with English Language. Then there’s no question there will be a whole new cohort lining up to sign on the dotted line.
And this will be the revolution: we’ll get policemen (and women) who’ll actually be able to have a discussion with a civilian they nabbed in one suspected infraction or another without resorting to profanities or a fried rice demand! Up to now, the poor cop probably just didn’t have the vocabulary to express himself, and, in frustration, let off a few scatological exclamations!
Did you ever think the reason traffic police ranks drag you to the station for just crossing an unbroken yellow line might be that they just can’t fill out the traffic ticket violation?
Now, before you think this requirement is unrealistic… let’s appreciate the PPP’s push for raising the educational level of all Guyanese. Those 20,000 scholarship graduates from their Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) will soon be looking for jobs; and why not the Police Force, if the pay is competitive?? In New York, you need at least 60 college credits to apply.
All in all, your Eyewitness is really excited by this development. He’s obviously had too many unfortunate interactions with (uneducated) police ranks!
…Caribbean unity
Well, how have the times changed!! Bajans are actually being polite to Guyanese, which isn’t a curse word to them no mo’; at least not in front of us!! And this just shows you it’s money that makes the world go round! Forget all those fine-sounding platitudes about us all passing through the same sugar plantations and slavery which made us into “one Caribbean people”. Not so…as all of us who were subjected to the “Guyanese Bench” at Grantley Adams Airport know to our cost!
Anyhow, now that our oil’s flowing, it’s clear that the centre of gravity of the new Caribbean is gonna be Guyana and Suriname – and we should all collaborate closer. Now, there’s absolutely nothing wrong about this. For sure we’ll need all sorts of expertise to develop this new economy; and if they can be sourced from our Caricom neighbours, why not?
Trinidad and Barbados, along with Guyana and Suriname, can now form a SouthCarib Hub. There’s strength in numbers, no?
…entrepreneurship levels
Even though the Opposition’s been criticising the Government for awarding contracts to a small group of businesses, it will take time for that body to expand. In the meantime, Government’s been trying every which way to stimulate entrepreneurship skills!!
